Magic number is 70

Susan Fornoff, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, June 21, 1998

1998-06-21 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- On a greens-baking day that turned El Nino into a fond memory for the best golfers in the world, Payne Stewart weathered a storm of missed fairways, missed greens and missed birdie putts to quadruple his lead at the U.S. Open.

Only Stewart was left with a red number under the bluest of San Francisco skies, a big minus-3 on a leaderboard that showed every other player in black, none closer than Tom Lehman and Bob Tway at 1-over-par 281.

The red one was the same number that had stood next to Stewart's name at the start of the day, and Stewart's closest pursuers say that if he can merely post another par round Sunday on the Lake Course and preserve that minus-3, he will surely win his second U.S. Open title.

"I think it's going to take some great golf to finish under par," Lehman said.

Stewart, the U.S. Open champion in 1991, has greater aspirations than another 70, but agreed by reciting his mantra for the week, "The way this golf course is set up, par is a hell of a score."

Only three players broke par on Saturday, and Stewart wasn't among them. Lehman made his move with a 68, Steve Stricker sneaked into contention, at 3-over, with a 69, and Jim Furyk shot a 68 that left him eight shots off the pace.

The names in contention are formidable ones: Another former Open champion, Lee Janzen, is tied with former British Open and PGA champion Nick Price, five shots back at 2-over.

But, said Price, "Tomorrow is really Payne's day. We have to go out there and be patient and wait for him to make a mistake, if he does."

Stewart's been making plenty of mistakes, but not the costly kind that everyone else on the leaderboard has been making. He entered the day with a one-shot lead over Tway and Jeff Maggert, then put up an eagle on the par-5 first hole, reaching the green in two and sinking a 20-footer for 3, putting a red 5 next to his name.

The rest in the field, the smallest in 20 years at 60 players, were already taking the elevator down the leaderboard. The breeze that cleared out the fog and made the day so gorgeous for the 25,000 fans who filled the course was waxing the greens and hardening the fairways. So great tee shots were rolling into the rough, and some of the best approach shots were trickling off the greens.

No wonder the players were getting sentimental about all that rain we had over the winter.

"Brutal holes, just brutal," said Chris Perry, who had the only hole-in-one of the tournament so far en route to a 72. "The wind today was a lot harder than the first two days, and the course is getting how the USGA wants it - baked."

Said Stewart, "The secret here is when you miss a fairway, miss it wide enough so the ball goes where the gallery walks, then the grass is trampled down and you get a better lie."

He was smiling, but not entirely joking. On one occasion he was able to use his 3-wood to recover from a drive that hit a woman lining the fairway and dropped onto that hospitable grass.

Yes, Stewart seemed charmed at times. He bogeyed the par-3 third hole after knocking a 6-iron onto the lip of a bunker, then birdied the par-3 eighth after nearly holing a 7-iron. The rest of the day, Stewart kept putting himself into position to collapse, but didn't. He bogeyed Nos. 9 and 15, but he saved pars on 12, 13, 16 and 17.

The man looks and sounds in control. At 41 - the same age as Masters champion Mark O'Meara - Stewart has lost his zest for the average PGA Tour event, and he hasn't won since the 1995 Shell Houston Open.

"I have got a beautiful wife and two lovely kids that I am really enjoying spending time at home with," he said. "I am a taxi service when I am at home, and I love it. And as I am getting older, it is getting harder and harder to go out and do the grind out on the PGA Tour that it takes."

He's finished third, fourth and eighth in tour events this year, but no better than tied for 18 in his other eight. But the majors still put a twinkle in his eye.

"I would say probably one of my biggest problems is I probably lose focus in some of our PGA Tour events that just kind of - they all kind of blend together," he said.

"But when you are at a major, at the U.S. Open, my focus is pretty sharp. . . .

"The stage I am in my career, I don't go out and worry about where I finish on the money list. Nothing would make my year more complete than to win a major, and if it happens (Sunday), then it's going to be a great year, whether I do anything else the rest of the year or not."

Stewart's mother, Bee, is here with him because his wife, Tracey, is home getting the kids (12-year-old Chelsea and 9-year-old Aaron) ready for camp. His father, Bill, died of cancer in 1985, 30 years after playing in the first U.S. Open here, in 1955.

Saturday Stewart had USGA officials look up his dad's scores on the Lake Course. They were 83 and 88, in a year when not even the winner, Jack Fleck, broke par; Fleck and Ben Hogan were 7-over at 287 to force an 18-hole playoff that Fleck won with an incredibly low score of 1-under 69.

"My mother said the rough was knee-high," Stewart said.

"So maybe they're taking it easy on us this week."

Now he really was joking. Only two players broke par here at the 1966 Open, only two more at the 1987 Open, and the Lake Course has its guard firmly in place for the 1998 Open.

Listen to what the man says: Par is a good score. And if Payne Stewart has just one more in him, he'll be just one more 41-year-old to win a major in 1998.&lt;

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